Our 3D printer has captured the imaginations of everyone in our elementary school, and I’m so glad! It’s thrilling to see kids’ designs come to life, print cool models from Thingiverse, and even witness Minecraft creations rendered in glorious plastic. Unfortunately, things don’t always print as expected - and in fact, much of the time, they don’t. The spaghetti disaster above is the result of a model coming free from the baseplate (I still don’t know how that happened) on an overnight print. Serves me right for thinking I could let this thing run unattended. The larger problem we are having is a design issue having to to with overhangs. To Support or Not to Support, That is the Question The great free 3D design tools we’ve profiled here on my blog all have one thing in common: it’s very easy to design "in thin air," meaning you literally can place objects anywhere. This is terrific from a creativity standpoint but we’re finding it’s very problematic when it comes to printing. The basic problem is that a 3D printer works horizontally, in layers, and can’t print "into thin air." Take for example First Grader Isabella M.’s "Snowflake Treehouse," printed without "supports." Everything’s just fine until you check out the underside of the roof: Which is amazing to have printed successfully at all, in my view. To help alleviate this problem - as far as I know - there are two options. The first is to rotate the item so that any overhangs are minimized. The second is to use the Makerbot Makerware software option to print "supports," which basically means thin vertical columns of material underneath things that would otherwise be difficult to print because of overhangs. Sounds great in theory! Problem we’ve had is that the supports DON’T come off easily (we must be doing something wrong) and often will leave unsightly remnants behind (it’s hard to see but the base of the snowflake has material left over from the supports): In other cases, supports seem to put material where it doesn’t belong, messing up the model: and The model above is a professionally-designed building and was created using AutoCAD. We must be doing something wrong … I’m off to find out what settings I can adjust to improve our results. Meanwhile, if anyone has any advice I can pass along to my students, who continue to design things (rightfully so!) that defy gravity, I’d appreciate it! Here’s Isabella’s latest creation, a sunflower - I’ve left the support material on: Thanks! Mr. Jarrett

Timelines don't need to be about history. Get some ideas here.Post from: The eLearning CoachThe Art Of Timelines For Learning

January is a busy month for learning technologists. On Monday we had Handeld Learning, this week is BETT and on 26/27th January it’s Learning Technologies. I didn’t manage to get to Handheld Learning this year but I did manage to spend a few hours at BETT. BETT is the learning technology show for education so it’s frequented primarily by teachers who have a special bent on technology. Few corporate e-learning people attend but I always find it  useful to see what is happening on the other side of the learning technology fence. One thing that is immediately clear is that this is a big show - it takes over the whole of Olympia (Learning Technologies is teeny by comparison). As you can imagine the technologies on display are aimed primarily at the classroom environment so interactive whiteboards are really big at BETT. So are student response technologies - you know those little wireless devices that let pupils and students make contributions in class. There are also big stands by major IT players such as Dell, Asus, NEC, Toshiba and Adobe and Microsoft. Strangely there was no Apple stand but a fair number of Apple Resellers and Solution Experts. There was very little in the way of remote or virtual learning solutions. I guess this reflects the fact that the show is aimed primarily at classroom teachers. Synergy Learning were there with Moodle but there was no sign of Blackboard or any other virtual learning environment platforms. Here are some highlights/lowlights: Elearningforce were demonstrating their SharePoint based LMS. Ouch! MOOPLE is a new virtual learning environment aimed at kids. ASUS were demonstrating their new big slate device. Nice widescreen but Windows 7 is not a great slate OS and as for apps well you’ll just have to be patient. One thing that you do see at BETT is learning technologies that are fun and engaging. Lego had a massive stand and there were some pretty cool interactive whiteboard applications. But probably the most interesting piece of new technology that I came across was a chair designed specifically to be used by a class gathered around an interactive whiteboard. The Lamu can be used in two positions facing forward or facing backwards (more like a conventional chair). Even for an adult it was surprisingly comfortable and facing forward it allows a sort of rocking motion that makes using it even more enjoyable.

This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Week ending 01/10/14 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: Given the success of this lesson on non-standard measurement with 1st grade last week, I decided to do a slightly modified version for my Kindergarten students this week. We did a bit less measuring and took more time to explore, explain and play, and the results were worth it. (I failed to get any pictures, we were having too much fun.) What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson generated more enthusiasm than most others of late. I’m not sure if it was due to the popularity of Sid the Science Kid, the zaniness of measuring things with shoe and other objects, or the challenge and reward of the web activities Curious George: How Tall and PBS Kids’ Fearless Flying Fleas … but this week we had more kids openly cheering and literally high-fiving each other as they succeeded in their tasks. What students can do at home: This is super easy to replicate at home - any object can be used to measure another - challenge your child to estimate the size of some objects and then measure them with others. Compare the results! The website activities above (and more!) are on the Kindergarten Symbaloo! Image Credit: Engineering is Elementary Image credit: Engineering is Elementary Image credit: Wikipedia First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: It’s January, which means it’s time for our First Grade STEM unit, the excellent Engineering is Elementary production called "A Sticky Situation: Designing Walls." (Check out the unit overview.) When I mentioned we were starting a project like they did last year in Kindergarten, they were very excited! We reviewed the Flickr Set from last year, with great results, I don’t know what the kids were more excited by - the prospect of "getting dirty" with mortar mixes or smashing the walls to bits at the end of the unit. We then returned to the STEMLAB where we used Google Earth to show how far China is from the USA by "flying" from NCS to the Great Wall of China. The kids’ mouths were agape as the Earth spun around for what seemed like forever until the Great Wall appeared. We read the first three chapters of "Yi Min’s Great Wall," the storybook that presents the engineering design challenge at the center of the unit. The protagonist is a young Chinese schoolgirl who wants to protect her school’s garden from a hungry rabbit. We then wrapped up with an intro of the next week’s lesson and let the kids play on the Chromebooks for a few minutes before leaving. What I observed / inferred / connected: I really enjoyed reading the book, as I did last year.  We stopped for questions periodically and had some great conversations along the way about gardens, caring for them, what types of things are grown in gardens, etc. We talked about earth materials for building, which might be better for walls than others, and which types we’ve seen around school and home. I was amazed how many first graders had heard of the Great Wall of China. One even said she’d visited it - but we’re pretty sure that’s a tall tale. What students can do at home: Talk about brick walls either in your home or nearby. Ask your child what they know about the walls, how they are formed, why they are created, etc. and let them astound you. Check out the First Grade Symbaloo page for fun online activities. Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: The "Drops on a Penny Challenge" is part science experiment, part spreadsheet data collection activity, and it’s always fun. I start by telling the students they will "do the impossible!" and ask how many drops of water they believe will fit on a penny before running over the side. The estimates are usually in the single digits until I prod them to "think bigger" - but their guesses are always short of what’s possible! We watched this Youtube video of a penny getting 36 drops of water just to show them what IS possible, then we talked about surface tension via an example everyone can relate to - doing a belly flop into a pool. We talked about the properties of water, the principle of cohesion, and how pennies (old and new) might hold more or less water (and why.) Each student was provided with a shiny, NEW penny and one older, worn penny; eye droppers; a magnifying glass; paper towels and water. They used the worksheet above (blank available here) to record their predictions and repeated observations. Our trusty Dell D600 laptops (one per group/table) were used to collect data via a Google Docs Spreadsheet. They also had to explain WHY they were seeing what they were seeing. What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson was great fun, mostly because the students were in charge of their own learning. They conducted the tests and recorded the results on their own. All were successful; everyone was able to get their pennies to hold a large amount of water. Excited shouts could be heard around the room as the tiny water bubbles eventually burst. "I got 50!" "Watch it wiggle!" "It looks like a Snow Globe!" It’s such a simple activity but one that captures the imagination and is therefore PRECISELY the kind of lesson experience we want. What worked well: every student had what they needed to be successful and they were. All were amazed by what they observed. Many went home and told their parents and re-did the challenge at home. I am willing to bet many of them will remember this lesson and the concept of "surface tension" for years to come. What could have been better: some students struggled with the worksheet, particularly the writing portions. I could have done a better job explaining what they needed to do. Some "old" pennies were shinier than "new" ones, causing some confusion. My explanation of surface tension could have had more of a scientific basis. What students can do at home: Do the challenge! Get a penny and an eyedropper and see how many drops will fit. Use different coins, but first, have the students PREDICT what will happen and explain WHY. (A magnifying glass is helpful to investigate coins up close.) We are working on having students remember their Google Docs logins; it’s going to take a while, but, ask your student regularly if they know theirs. (Note: the Google Docs login link is on the NCS Website under "Students and Parents.") We want students to be comfortable using Google Docs anywhere, anytime! Practice keyboarding with Typing Pal. Students should know their usernames and passwords by now (they are simpler than Google Docs.) Third Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Our Engineering is Elementary STEM unit, "Catching the Wind: Designing Windmills" has moved into the hands-on phase! Students are using what they know about sail materials and structure to design and test their own sails.  They selected the material to use from the available supplies (we evaluated them last week) and began with designs on paper. Using straws for frames and craft sticks for masts, most students completed at least one design, which were then tested on our sail track (shown above). What I learned / observed / inferred: This went about as well as I’d hoped, the kids had no trouble designing (at least moderately) successful sails. We had plenty of materials, plenty of time, and there was plenty of conversation, collaboration and celebration. Providing students with some ideas about possible designs helped a lot, but the best ideas came from students themselves as they iterated through various designs on their own. What students can do at home: The basic science concepts behind this unit are fairly simple, students could easily compare materials found around the home, examining the texture, properties and suitability for sail designs - they could even make and test their own. Check out the Third Grade Symbaloo for fun learning activities! Fourth Grade What we covered / did / explored: Having just finished the longest-running Engineering is Elementary STEM unit in our history, we had the students complete an assessment that was both a test of the knowledge they gained as well as their experience with presentations (Google Docs). Students worked independently to complete the assessment shown above and then shared the document with me electronically. What I observed / inferred / connected: The assessment took just about the entire available period, telling me the length was right. I have not reviewed them all yet but in retrospect I wish I had worked a collaborative element into the activity.  They could have worked with a partner (electronically) and divided up the work between them. Next time… What students can do at home: Work on keyboarding skills with Typing Pal. If they need help with their password, they can contact me, or, use the Parent Technology Help Desk. Check out the Fourth Grade Symbaloo for fun learning activities!

This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Week ending 01/17/14 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: We warmed up with some shape identification/matching and a fun shape puzzle game from ABCYa.com before returning to the cubes by the SMART Board for a discussion about playing well together. (It’s one of the pro-social skills we work on in school.) Almost everyone could relate to a play date that didn’t go well for some reason, how it made them feel, and how it was resolved. Many thoughts were shared. It was a great discussion. We then watched Crawford Lets Everyone Play (the video above) and talked in various spots as the story unfolded, asking questions to stimulate even more conversation. When it was over, I asked the students to use Kerpoof.com to create an illustration of a playdate going well with appropriate graphics, dialog and text identifiers. We printed them in color. What I observed / inferred / connected: This was only the second time kids had used Kerpoof.com but thanks to its superior user interface and ease of use they were instantly productive, generating excellent images with little effort - meaning they could be extra creative in terms of composition. Kerpoof.com started having MASSIVE stability problems about mid-week and never fully recovered. Several students had to go with our Plan B, creating images using ABCYa’s  free and fabulous PaintGO site. Nothing wrong with that, just wasn’t the tool I wanted them to work with, and I hadn’t expected Kerpoof to go KERPOOF! What students can do at home: Using art-based Web 2.0 tools for self-expression is easy and fun. Check out the Kindergarten Symbaloo for more possibilities! First grade students examine mortar in the Elementary school vestibule (2013) First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: We finished reading the Engineering is Elementary storybook, "Yi Min’s Great Wall." Students were great listeners as they sat for a good 20-25 minutes, allowing me to get through the rest of the chapters. Conversation was great too thanks to the comprehension questions sprinkled throughout. We took a mini "field trip" into the vestibule outside the Elementary office to examine the mortar used in the bricks in our school. Kids ran their fingers on the mortar and felt what we believe to be sand rub off onto their fingers. Back in the classroom I gave the students a sneak peek of what to expect when we start mixing and testing mortars this coming week! What I observed / inferred / connected: Kids enjoyed finding out how the story ended and seeing the close relationship between Yi Min and her Grandfather. What students can do at home: We talked a lot about different kinds of mortar. Help your child see these in real life and ask them to guess what they might be made of. Be prepared for them to request a "finger test." Check out the First Grade Symbaloo for fun learning activities. Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Last week’s "water drops on a penny" exercise was equal parts crazy mad awesome science exploration -AND- data collection effort. I needed something to base a spreadsheet lesson on to make it "real;" and inventing fictitious numbers just didn’t seem right. So we gathered our data, I consolidated the entire second grade’s observations into a single spreadsheet, and we used that as the starting point for this lesson. First we reviewed the collected data for reasonableness. As you can see in the first image above, there are several outliers and some wild fluctuations. We talked about what we saw and what might explain the differences - how drops were placed on the pennies, size of the drops, table shaking, etc., and kids ate it up. They even observed things I missed. Impressive! We then looked at histograms of the predicted and actual data and saw some very interesting things. The predicted water drop numbers formed an almost perfect normal distribution, which we talked about. The actual water drop numbers had a bell-curve distribution as well, but with different characteristics, which we also discussed. The last part of the lesson involved creating a basic spreadsheet with simple formulas, which the students did mostly by themselves.  They then shared the spreadsheet with me. What I observed / inferred / connected: Keyboarding … keyboarding … keyboarding! Students with solid keyboarding skills were well ahead of everyone else during the creation aspect of the lesson. Can’t emphasize this enough. It’s the most important skill kids will learn in my class. Kids are great at spotting trends in data. Who knew? What students can do at home: Graphs are pretty simple to recreate even without a computer. They can be built with objects, drawn, etc. Here’s an example. The important thing is that the data collection is accurate. In this Edutopia article, "Wonder, Prediction and Student Engagement," author Dr. Richard Curwin speaks about the power of wonder and prediction in student learning. It’s a big part of what we do in my classroom. Check out the Second Grade Symbaloo for fun learning activities and KEYBOARDING PRACTICE! Third Grade What we learned / did / explored together: We had a second session of designing and testing sails, but this time, we recorded our data for further analysis later in the unit. Sail designs got bigger and crazier than ever before and kids learned what worked and what didn’t. What I learned / observed / inferred: Kids are fearless, especially in environments where experimentation and failure are encouraged. My classroom is unique in that respect. I’m convinced it’s one of the reasons why kids enjoy STEMLAB so much. I need to use stronger fishing line next time to minimize flex in the sail track. A lot of kids’ designs toppled over midway through, or wobbled, resulting in them traveling less far than they might have. What students can do at home: Ask your child what they thought of this activity. Did they get the results they expected? Why or why not? What materials worked well? What shapes? What about other students’ designs? Check out the Third Grade Symbaloo for fun learning activities and KEYBOARDING PRACTICE! Fourth Grade What we covered / did / explored: Students worked through several Learning.com EasyTech tutorials on presentation software as preparation for a project we will be doing involving our 3D printer. What I observed / inferred / connected: EasyTech is a terrific service that allows students to learn at their own pace. We have been using it successfully for years to establish baseline skills and for refreshers when needed. Its gentle learning curve and clear instructions make it effective, even enjoyable as a means of acquiring or building skills. What students can do at home: We have provided the login information but can do so again at any time - if your child wishes to explore EasyTech at home, contact me! Check out the FourthGrade Symbaloo for fun learning activities and KEYBOARDING PRACTICE!

You don't want your project to fail, but how can you control it? Post from: The eLearning CoachHow To Avoid Project Failure

Part of the fascination and wonder associated with our 3D printer is literally letting one’s imagination run wild. Students have already asked: could you 3D print a HOUSE? Yep! See below: Click here for the source article on Mashable.com, and click here to visit the company behind the product, Contour Crafting. These are truly amazing times! Mr. Jarrett

I had an e-mail today to thank me for being one of the early adopters of Linked-In: "I want to personally thank you because you were one of LinkedIn’s first million members (member number 237,711 in fact!). In any technology adoption lifecycle, there are the early adopters, those who help lead the way. That was you." Total members is now 100 million! I feel like a pioneer though I have never really utilised the full potential of Linked-In. My profile is here (come and connect):  http://uk.linkedin.com/in/jtacurran Read more at: http://100million.linkedin.com/ Infographic at: http://247wallst.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/linkedin-100m-user-chart-image.png

Book recommendations that provide inspiration, examples and guidelines for visualizing concepts, information and data.Post from: The eLearning Coach10 Books Of Visual Ideas

As we explore 3D printing more deeply in the STEMLAB, videos are immensely valuable for many reasons; for one, they help fuel the imagination. I’m currently using this short (2 minute) video, for a commercial 3D printing service called Shapeways, to do just that. While the 3D printing technology shown is different from our Makerbot Replicator 2, the essential messages in the video transcend any particular type of printer. Personally, I find them inspiring: "I’m not a designer, but, you know, now that I am seeing the possibilities of this technology, I’m starting to see the world differently, and you start to re-imagine objects around you." "People are taking the power of creation into their own hands." "It’s mind-blowing to build something today that was literally impossible yesterday." Those are some of the messages I want my students to hear. Check out the video below.